Lincolnshire's Industrial Past
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Lincolnshire's Industrial Past A guide to 12 touts affanged bY The Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology for the Annual Conference of The Association for Industrial Archaeology Lincoln 2009 Tour notes for the Annual conference of the Association for Industrial Archaeology held in Lincoln, september 2009 t First published by The Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology 2009 O The Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology rsBN 978 0 903582 38 4 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information retrieval system, without permission of the publisher ACKNOWLEDGEMEI{TS Editor: Ken Redmore Text: s B and H); ; Ken Hollamby (Tour M) Illustrations: Anderson & Glenn (Fig. 106); Eric Croft (Figs. 129,130,132); SLHA members References in the text, e.g. EL7I , are to Lincolnshire's Industrial Heritage - A Guide, edited by Neil Wright, published by SLHA in2004. Front cover illustration: Maud Foster Windmill. Boston Printed by Ruddocks of Lincoln A Lincoln 5 B Dogdyke and Woodhall Spa 9 C Gainsborough 13 D Museum of Lincolnshire Life I7 E Grimsby and Immingham 23 F Sleaford and Sutton Bridge 27 G New Bolingbroke and Boston 31 H Louth, The Wolds and the Marsh 35 J RAF Stations 39 K Spalding and Deeping Fen 43 L New Holland and Barton 47 M Scunthorpe and The Isle of Axholme 51 Bibliography 55 TOUR ROUTES Gains borough LI NCO Spa lding .O Sutton Bridge B. Dogdyke & Woodhall Spa C. Gainsborough E. Grimsby & lmmingham F. Sleaford & Sntton Bridge G. Boston H. Louth & the Coast J. RAF Sites ....... K. Spalding ' ....... L. BartOn & New HOlland Lincoln Tour A LINCOLN (Walking Tour) Maps: Landranger 121; Explorcr 272 Lincoln became a great engineering city in the middle of the nineteenth century and its early works were all in the flat Witham valley running through the centre of the city, later spreading east and west of the original area. Up to this time it was a cathedral city, market town and county town for Lincolnshire and its industries were those that might be expected in a large market town - mainly brewing, malting and flour milling. For cornmunication it had the Fossdyke Canal westwards to the tidal Trent at Torksey, and the navigable river Witham south-eastwards to the port of Boston on the Wash. Then in 1842 Nathaniel Clayton and Joseph Shuttleworth started the Stamp End Iron Works next to the Witham east of the city Figure 2: High Bridge, Lincoln centre. Within 20 years other works had been Until the 1970s Brayford was lined with steam founded that grew into the great firms of Fosters, mills and warehouses but those have also gone, Rustons and Robeys, all with worldwide trade in apart from one small building that is now the King agricultural engineering. William IV pub. The city's first electricity works (1898 tN9) was last to go, with permission for its demolition being given in2009. It is ironic that at least one of the new buildings erected round the site has been designed to look like a Georgian warehouse. East of Brayford the Witham flows past the eighteenth century Brush Warehouse (LN2) and then under High Bridge (LNI) of cl160 with later extensions in 1235 and 15401501' it was comprehensively restored c1902. It is said to be the second oldest masonry arch bridge in Britain and Figure l: North-east corner of Brayford, c1905 the only bridge in the country that still has a medieval secular building on it. The river This walking tour starts at Brayford Pool (LN7), the underneath was deepened and made navigable in harbour of Roman and later periods at the 1195. Before then porters had carried goods confluence of the Fossdyke Canal (LN11) and the between Brayford and the Witham east of the navigable river Witham. The 1l-mile long bridge. The navigation of the river Witham Fossdyke is thought to date from Roman times and between Lincoln and Boston had deteriorated by was made navigable again by Henry I in II2I. It the eighteenth century and in the 1770s was later deteriorated until restoration in 1,740-45 by improved under a scheme devised by John Grundy, Richard Ellison. At Lincoln there used to be John Smeaton and Langley Edwards with a top lock several warehouses on the north bank of the canal at Stamp End on the eastern edge of Lincoln. but none of these remain. Lincoln Siemens. In 2008 Siemens decided to move to another site in the city and the future of the Waterside site is uncertain. Beyond Rustons is the site of Clayton & Shuttleworth's Stamp End Works (LN26). The business was started in 1842 by Nathaniel Clayton and Joseph Shuttleworth and in the nineteenth century was the greatest engineering firm in the city. In fact it was one of the largest engineering firms in the world during the second half of the nineteenth century, with 940 employees by 1862. Figure 3: Doughtyn's Oil Cake Mill, Waterside South, By 1900 they had 3000 employees in Lincoln and 1900. Foster's Wellington Works are on the left. branches in Budaoest and Vienna. Industrial buildings on both banks of the Witham started beyond Thorn Bridge. First on the south bank was Doughty's oil seed crushing mill (LN2Q. Next to the four-storey grey brick classical building of 1863 is a taller block of 1891, and both were converted to apartments in the 1990s. On the opposite bank low walls around a car park are all that remains of the original Wellington Works where William Foster & Co. started making steam engines in 1856. Because that site was restricted and had no railway access, the firm moved from there in 1899 to the western edge of the city next to Clayton the Midland Railway line to Nottingham. Figure 5: Edwardian ffice block of & Shuttleworth's Stamp End Works, Waterside South There was a dock down the middle of the site and, as threshing machines were one of their main products, they established wood works on one side of their site and iron works on the other side. Early in the twentieth century they established their own electricity works on the opposite bank of the river, then built the Titanic works across the railway line from their Stamp End Works (LN29), and during World War I established the Abbey Works and Tower Works further east. Clayton and Shuttleworth were ruined after the end of the First World War, though they suffered a Figure 4: Ruston & Hornsby Works, Waterside South lingering death and did not finally close until about 1929. After 1918 parts of their site were sold off or Beyond Doughty's Oil Mill are the Sheaf Iron rented out to other firms, and some viable sections Works (LN25), the original site of Ruston, Procter were later made separate businesses so they could & Co. formed in 1857 when 22-year-old Joseph survive the demise of the parent company. Many Ruston joined a small existing firm. His skill as an 1860s buildings survived until 2002103 and part of entrepreneur developed the firm, he bought out his the Edwardian offices at the front still remains. more cautious partners and in the twentieth century Both families were millionaires in their time and it became the largest employer in the city. For the 1930s playboy heir spent part of the family some 50 years after 1918 it traded as Ruston & money on what has become the Shuttleworth Hornsby and since then has gone through a number Collection at Old Warden in Buckinshamshire. of metamorphoses as Ruston Gas Turbines, European Gas Turbines, Alsthom and, from 2003, Lincoln Figure 6: Stamp End Lock Figure 8: Pelham Road Bridge In front of the works is the top lock on the Witham navigation (Stamp End Lock LN2n which was These works were established by Robert Robey in built further upstream in 1770 and rebuilt here in 1854 and most of the buildings were erected in 1826 following the extension of Sincil Dyke. The 1882. The products included traction engines, top gates were replaced by a guillotine in 1950 but steam wagons and colliery winding gear. Robeys at the east end the lock still has unusual curved moved out in 1988 but many of the large buildings gates. remain, in other uses. Figure 7: Stamp End Railway Bridge Figure 9: Lincoln Central Station To the east the Witham is crossed by a ruilway bridge (LN2B) of 1847148. It was designed by Sir John Fowler for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln had two railway stations from 1848 until Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) and may be the 1985. The Great Northern Railway station, now oldest extant example of a Fairbairn wrought iron called Central Station (LN4), is a Tudor-style box girder bridge. Beyond the bridge is Clayton & building designed by John Henry Taylor for the Shuttleworth's Titanic Works (1912 LN29) which GNR's Lincolnshire Loop Line from Peterborough, was occupied from 1928 to 1989 by Clayton via Boston, which opened on 17 October 1848. On Dewandre Ltd. Opposite the Titanic Works was a 9 April 1849 the line was extended to Gains- lifting bridge, now fixed, that included railway lines borough and later gave the GNR a link back to their for wagons to go to the firm's electricity works on main line opened in 1852, hence the name 'loop the north bank. line'. On the High Street adjoining the station are the remains of the stables (now converted to shops) Retuming to Melville Street, from Pelham Bridge of the former Great Northem Hotel which stood on (LN22), opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 27 June the other side of the road.